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Avast Cleanup for Android - Getting Started

Avast Cleanup for Android is a mobile app designed to help improve the performance of your device and preserve storage space by removing unnecessary media, files, apps, and app data. Remove these items by transferring them to a cloud storage account and/or deleting them from your device. You can also optimize photos so they consume less space.

This article assumes that the latest version of Avast Cleanup is installed and ready to use on your Android device. For detailed instructions to install the app and perform initial set up, refer to the following article:

Boost Memory: Allows you to hibernate apps to release memory and boost performance.

Tips: Offers tips to release space on your device.

Media: Provides an overview of media stored on your device (including photos, videos, and audio). You can additionally optimize your photos by decreasing their pixel size so they consume less space. This feature also displays media that you may want to delete to create additional storage space on your device.

Apps: Offers tips related to app usage, such as uninstalling never or rarely used apps, or apps that occupy a large amount of storage.

From the main screen of the app, you can also tap ☰Menu (three lines) in the top-left corner to easily access and manage apps, files, and media on your device, as well as manage connected cloud services, and configure app settings.

Perform a Quick Clean

Quick Clean cleans your device by removing unnecessary files to free storage space. You can select which item types are removed before you clean.

Tap the Quick Clean button.

In Quick Clean Check, tick the item types you want to clean. Item types are divided into 2 sections (you may see one or both sections, depending what data types are stored on your device):

Safe to clean: data that has been carefully selected to ensure that it is truly dispensable, including thumbnails, APKS, residual files, and hidden, visible, and shared cache. All categories are ticked by default as Safe to clean, except Thumbnails.

For your consideration: data that may or may not be valuable to you. We recommend reviewing items included in this group and ticking only those items that are dispensable. All items are unticked by default and will not be deleted unless you manually select them for deletion.

Boost your device's memory

The Boost Memory feature stops apps from running in the background, releasing memory for other tasks.

Tap the Boost Memory tile.

Tick the apps you want to stop, then tap Hibernate Apps (or Kill Apps if Avast Cleanup does not yet have permission to hibernate apps).

You must allow Avast Cleanup to hibernate apps via your device settings. You are prompted to grant Avast Cleanup this permission during initial setup. If you skipped initial setup, tap Kill Apps, select Grant Permission from the results screen, then follow onscreen instructions to allow Avast Cleanup to hibernate apps.

Tap the back arrow to return to the main app screen.

Manage files and media stored on your device

The Media feature allows you to easily view and manage Videos, Pictures, and Audio stored on your device.

Tap the Media tile.

The following options are available from the Media Overview screen:

Overview chart: Shows the percentage of device storage occupied by Videos, Pictures, and Audio. Tap a category to view and manage individual items.

Photo Analysis: Allows you to easily remove unwanted photos from your device by deleting the images or sending them to cloud storage. Tap a category to view and manage individual items. Especially large categories are marked red.

Optimizable: Identifies optimizable images on your device. Optimizable images can be re-sized to occupy less space without noticeable differences in quality. Tap the image to view and manage individual items.

Folders: Provides an overview of folders on your device. Folders are arranged in size order, and especially large folders are marked red. Tap any folder to view and manage its contents, or tap Show All to access additional folders.

Large videos: Identifies any videos larger than 20MB stored on your device and allows you to delete them to release storage. Tap the image to view and manage individual items.

Optimize your photos

Avast Cleanup allows you to optimize your images to occupy less space. Images that are already the same size as your device screen (for example, screenshots) are not optimizable. To optimize your photos:

Tap the Media tile on the main app screen.

Scroll down and tap the Optimizable panel.

By default, all optimizable images are selected. Optionally, tap Deselect All and manually select images for optimization. Then, tap the Optimize button at the bottom of the screen.

Select Delete originals to permanently remove the original images from your device. Alternatively, send originals to cloud storage using the relevant option below:

Account name: If you are already connected to one or more cloud storage accounts, tap the name of a connected cloud storage account. Optimization begins immediately and original images are sent to the connected cloud storage account.

Connect to cloud storage: This option appears if Avast Cleanup is not yet connected to any cloud storage accounts, tap Connect to cloud storage to open the Cloud Services screen, where you can connect to a cloud storage account.

When optimization is complete, tap the back arrow to return to the main app screen.

Remove unwanted photos from your device

In addition to Optimizing your photos, Avast Cleanup also helps you free storage space by identifying images that you may want to remove from your device.

Tap the Media tile on the main app screen.

Scroll down to Photo Analysis. Tap a photo category to review its contents:

Similar Photos: Scans for groups of similar photos and marks the best quality photo in each group.

Bad Photos: Scans for photos which are blurry, dark, or poor quality.

Sensitive Photos: Scans for images sent or received via social apps that may be private or sensitive.

Old Photos: Scans for old, potentially unwanted photos.

All photos are unselected by default. Tap Select All, or tick images individually for removal.

Sensitive Photos and Old Photos: tap the icon (three dots) and select one of the following options:

Optimize size: Resizes the selected photos so they occupy less space on your device. You can either delete the original images, or send the original images to cloud storage. If Avast Cleanup is not yet connected to any cloud storage accounts, tap Connect to cloud storage to open the Cloud Services screen, then sign in to a cloud storage account.

Move to cloud: Sends the selected photos to your connected cloud storage account. If you are connected to more than one cloud storage account, you are first prompted to choose an account. You can manage connected accounts via the Cloud Services screen.

Connect to cloud: If Avast Cleanup is not yet connected to any cloud storage accounts, tap Connect to cloud to open the Cloud Services screen, then sign in to a cloud storage account to enable sending the selected photos to your cloud storage account.

Analyze and manage your apps

The Apps feature analyzes your installed apps and provides data relating to data usage and size. The feature additionally analyzes how often you use apps, and allows you to immediately release memory by hibernating apps that are running in the background.

Tap the Apps tile on the main app screen to view the following data:

Overview chart: select a tile to manage your apps or app data:

Installed: apps you have installed that are not necessary for the running of your device. You can removeInstalled apps.

System: apps that are necessary for the running of your device. System apps can be hibernated, but not removed from your device.

Drainers: identify apps that may be draining your data and battery. Select a category to view and manage individual apps. Apps are divided into the following categories:

Data: displays apps that use a large amount of mobile data.

Storage: displays apps that are taking up the most space on your device.

Battery: displays apps that are draining your battery.

Usage: displays apps based on frequency of use. You can view Least used, Most used, and Unused apps. After selecting a category, can can additionally specify a duration using the tabs at the top of the screen (for example, least used apps in the last 7 days).

Running: displays the number of apps currently running in the background. Tap Quick Boost to immediately hibernate active apps and release memory.

Growing: tap this panel to view apps that are occupying more space on your device than previously. Apps are displayed in order of size.

Notifying: tap this panel to view your list of Notifying apps. Apps are displayed in order by the number of notifications sent in the last 7 days.

To manage your installed apps:

Tap a category listed above (for example, Growing).

Select one or more apps, then tap the icon (three dots) in the bottom-right corner.

Select your preferred option:

Remove from device: uninstalls the selected app(s).

Hibernate: immediately stops the selected app(s) running in the background and releases memory.

Tap the back arrow to return to the Apps Overview screen.

Review tips for device optimization

The Tips feature analyzes your device and displays a selection of space saving tips. You can customize Analysis Preferences to ensure that the space saving tips that are most relevant to you appear first.

Tap Tips from the main app screen.

If you are using the feature for the first time, tap Customize to customize Analysis Preferences. Alternatively, tap Skip to use default settings and go immediately to view space saving tips. You can customize Analysis Preferences at any time via the app settings.

From the Analysis Preferences screen, tap and hold the ☰ icon (three lines) next to a category, then drag the category up or down. The category at the top of the list has highest priority, while the category at the bottom has lowest priority.

When you have configured your chosen Analysis Preferences, tap the back arrow to view customized space saving tips.

Swipe to the left to view subsequent tips. Tap ⋮ (three dots) next to the TIP number and either tap Customize tips to open the Analysis Preferences screen, or tap Show this tip less often if you no longer want to see related tips.

Manage cloud transfers

'The cloud' refers to virtual storage space where you can keep media and files such as photos, videos, and documents. Avast Cleanup allows you to easily transfer items from your device to a connected cloud storage account.

You can connect to a cloud storage account via the Cloud Services screen. This screen is accessible using either method below:

The account now appears under Connected cloud services. To sign out of an account, tap the ⋮ icon (three dots) next to the account and select Sign out.

You can be connected to multiple Google Drive accounts and one Dropbox account at the same time. If you are connected to multiple accounts simultaneously, you are prompted to choose an account each time you attempt to transfer data to cloud storage.

Set Automatic Cleaning (Avast Cleanup Pro only)

The Automatic Cleaning feature (available in paid versions of Avast Cleanup) allows you to schedule automatic cleaning of your device:

Tap Quick Clean on the main app screen.

Tap Automatic Cleaning, then tap the OFF slider so it turns ON to enable this feature.

Set how regularly Avast Cleanup performs scans, and the minimum amount of space you want to clean. You can also specify if you receive a notification about each cleaning by tapping the slider next to Notify me when cleaning is complete.

Under Clean automatically, select which file types are removed during Automatic Cleaning. All file types except Thumbnails are selected by default.

Automatic cleaning occurs as often as you specify, without you activating it each time.

Configure Avast Cleanup settings

To access Avast Cleanup settings:

Tap the ☰Menu icon (three lines) in the top-left corner of the app interface.

Tap Settings.

Tap a category to manage the related settings.

Analysis Preferences: Tap and hold the ☰ icon (three lines) next to a category, then drag the category up or down. The category at the top of the list has highest priority, while the category at the bottom has lowest priority. High priority categories appear first when you use the Tips feature.

Photo Optimizer: Contains options to customize the optimization of your images. You must have a paid version of Avast Cleanup to use this feature.

Remove Ads: This option only appears in the free version of Avast Cleanup. Select a subscripton option, then follow onscreen instructions to complete the purchase. If you have already purchased a paid subscription, tap ⋮ (three dots) ▸ Enter voucher code to enter your valid activation code.

Real-time Detection: Enable App leftover detection. This allows Avast Cleanup to detect files, folders, and app data left behind by apps that you have uninstalled.

Subscription: View your Activation Code and Learn More about Avast Mobile Subscriptions. You can also Unlink your current subscription if you want to use your activation code on an alternative device. This option only appears in paid versions of Avast Cleanup.

Cloud Services: Tap Connect next to a cloud storage provider (Google Drive or Dropbox) to connect to your account or create a new account. Tap the sliders to enable or disable settings that you want to apply to your cloud transfers. To sign out of a cloud storage account, tap the ⋮ icon (three dots) next to the account, then select Sign out.

Personal Privacy: Enable or disable the option to share anonymous data with third parties for analytics.

About Application: Check which version of Avast Cleanup is installed on your device, or review the End User License Agreement.